Where Moore, Peña-Melnyk and Ferguson disagree and converge for 2026

Gov. Wes Moore, House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk and Senate President Bill Ferguson have no small tasks in 2026. 

The three, all of whom are Democrats, have made pledges ahead of the legislative session to balance the budget, focus on affordability, combat federal policy that adversely impacts the state and grow the economy.

But there is at least one area of misalignment: How and whether the state should handle midcycle redistricting as President Donald Trump attempts to sway Republican-led states to redraw their maps ahead of the 2026 midterm election.

“The filing deadline for the ’26 election is February 23. We are well beyond that window, which would mean we would totally need to disrupt our election cycle,” said Ferguson, who has been vocally opposed to redistricting since the conversation began to take root in Maryland. “We’ve missed the window to do anything, and so to even try it now would be even more constitutionally weak or challenging because we would be putting the court in an impossible place that sets it up for jeopardy.”

In November, Moore convened the Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Commission to study Marylanders’ interest in redrawing the maps midcycle. Ferguson serves as a commissioner.  

After hours of testimony, the commission voted to move forward with consideration of new maps — a move Ferguson said was predetermined before it even met. He said that the attorney general’s office advised him that it would take “at least 100 to 120 days” to prepare to litigate if a new map were to move forward.

RELATED: MD leaders outline 2026 priorities, signal disagreement on redistricting

In a Monday interview with The Daily Record, Lester Davis, Moore’s chief of staff, said the commission “still has work to do,” but insisted that “there is time.”

“There isn’t truth to this notion that we don’t have time, or that we’ve run out of time, or somehow the clock has left us,” said Davis. “We’ll see what GRAC ultimately comes back with.”

Peña-Melnyk, who is starting her first session as speaker, has largely reserved her opinion on the matter, saying only that she supports the work the commission has completed so far.

“I’m just going to wait and see what happens,” she said.

RELATED: 9 notable figures in the 2026 MD General Assembly session

In spite of the discrepancy, there is clear alignment in at least one policy area: taxes.

Moore has made announcements in recent days regarding his plans to make investments in education and public safety, but has kept mum about how his yet-to-be proposed budget will mitigate the $1.4 billion structural deficit he and the legislature are up against this session.

Last year, when they tackled the $3 billion-plus deficit, it was done through a series of cuts and new and increased taxes and fees poised to generate $1.6 billion in revenue.

When the budget was sent to Moore’s desk on the final day of the 2025 legislative session, it was done so with the understanding by legislative leadership that there would be a $321 million surplus to kick off budget season 2026. At a fall meeting of the General Assembly‘s Spending Affordability Committee, it was announced that surplus had morphed itself into a deficit. 

So, will Moore and the legislature plug this year’s deficit with another round of taxes?

The governor’s office, Peña-Melnyk and Ferguson decidedly said no.

More from Eye on Annapolis: The Daily Record is publishing a series of stories previewing key topics, including the following, that are expected to be tackled by the General Assembly in the weeks leading up to the 2026 session. Energy DJS abuse lawsuits Juvenile Justice Attorney General’s Office Health Care Immigration Budget State Leadership

“There will be no revenues in this budget bill,” Jake Weissman, the acting secretary of the Maryland Department of Budget and Management, said in an interview with The Daily Record Monday. “This will be balanced by cuts and making tough decisions, but it will be a fully cash-balanced budget, which also takes a chunk of the structural deficit for [fiscal year] ’27 and beyond.”

Though Weissman declined to talk through specific cuts Marylanders can expect to see in Moore’s forthcoming proposal, he did say that the administration has had “productive conversations” — not just with General Assembly leadership, but advocates — regarding what cuts could be made and what funds may be tapped. 

Davis said that, though these conversations have been taking place over the course of several months, they haven’t been “pain-free,” and likely won’t be “pain-free” as the session unfolds.

The Senate will take the first stab at balancing the budget this year. Ferguson said his chamber plans to balance the budget through “cuts and cost containment — but it’s not going to be an easy endeavor.”

“I don’t foresee us using revenues or fees this year,” he said. “We’ve got to really focus this year on  containing the escalating costs that we’ve experienced.”

Peña-Melnyk said that “everyone” is going to have to contribute when it comes to cuts.

“We just need to sit down and figure out where those cuts will come from,” she said.

As they did last session, Moore, Ferguson and Peña-Melnyk will have to untangle the web of federal policies brought by President Donald Trump’s administration, including the impact his One, Big, Beautiful Bill will have on Medicaid access to more than 100,000 Marylanders.

According to the Department of Health, Maryland’s Medicaid program covered more than 1.5 million residents as of June 30, 2025. Approximately 175,000 Marylanders are projected to lose access to coverage via Medicaid because of changes to the program under Trump’s legislation.

Weissman said “it’s impossible for Maryland to protect Marylanders from all the damage of the Trump administration,” pointing to recent estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that 25,000 federal employees lost their jobs in 2025 due to mass-firings, layoffs or deferred resignations as the Trump administration attempted to thin out the workforce. 

“Marylanders are being hurt any number of ways. There’s just not a world that exists in Maryland’s budget or any others that we could be a one-to-one replacement,” he said. “We’re talking about harm mitigation where we can. We’re not talking about harm elimination.”

However, Jeremy Baker, Moore’s chief legislative officer, said that Maryland has “one of the best track records in the country” in regard to adapting to changes to Medicaid.

“Part of our spending increases over the past couple of years on Medicaid are because we’re so fantastically successful at redetermination,” said Baker. “We expect that we will continue to do really well and continue to pursue every policy and every option to make sure as many Marylanders get the coverage they need as we can.”

But there are only so many remedies that can be pursued. 

Peña-Melnyk said she had worked over the interim with the Department of Health, the Department of Labor, the comptroller’s office and the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange to determine if there is a way they could collaborate to ensure that recipients don’t lose access.

Ferguson’s chamber plans to usher in programs to manage the new work requirements that will be put in place by the year’s end, which he said will be “the biggest driver” of people losing coverage.

“At the end of the day, … what we know to be the case documented, evidenced, objective fact is that when people are uninsured, what they do is delay care, and then they only appear in the emergency room for the most severe things that are the most expensive,” he said. “That is not just a cost to them, it’s a cost to everybody with health care through uncompensated care if they can’t afford to pay the bill.”

Beyond Trump’s alterations of Medicaid, a series of other actions brought by his administration have given Maryland significant heartburn, including the loss of federal jobs.

Moore has said that he wants to move away from the state’s reliance on employment through the federal government to what he has deemed “lighthouse” industries in the tech sector. 

At the same time, Maryland — which is one of 13 states and Washington, D.C., that is connected to PJM Interconnection’s grid — has lofty climate goals, has been struggling with energy generation and utility customers have watched their energy bills skyrocket.

Moore announced last week that he would be putting forth the DECADE Act of 2026, which is poised to enhance Maryland’s business community and economic competitiveness through a series of measures, including implementing tax credit extensions.

In regard to the question of energy generation, Baker said that the administration plans to usher a bill forward that would promote affordability, enhance in-state generation “as fast as possible” and “improve existing transmission.”

“We think taking together those three things put you in a place where you’re holding down prices — both in the short-term and the long-term,” he said. 

Lowering utility prices for Marylanders is top-of-mind for Peña-Melnyk, who, in an interview last week said her daughter keeps her thermostat at a chilly 60 degrees because her electricity bill is so high.

“That’s a real example, and I know how many people feel that way,” she said.